Government/Bankers War on Cash

[Camilo]

http://worldtruth.tv/government-orders-banks-to-call-the-cops-when-customers-withdraw-5000-or-more/

The Wall Street Journal reports:

The U.S. Justice Department’s criminal head said banks may need to go beyond filing suspicious activity reports when they encounter a risky customer.

“The vast majority of financial institutions file suspicious activity reports when they suspect that an account is connected to nefarious activity,” said assistant attorney general Leslie Caldwell in a speech last Monday, according to prepared remarks.

“But, in appropriate cases, we encourage those institutions to consider whether to take more action: specifically, to alert law enforcement authorities about the problem.”

The remarks indicate that banks may be expected to do more than just file SARs, a responsibility that itself can be expensive and time-consuming.

Some banks already have close relationships with law enforcement, said Kevin Rosenberg, chair of Goldberg Lowenstein & Weatherwax LLP’s government investigation and white collar litigation group. Ms. Caldwell’s remarks “speak to moving forward in a more collaborative way,” said Mr. Rosenberg.

A tip-off from a bank about a suspicious customer could lead law enforcement to seize funds or start an investigation, Ms. Caldwell said.

Don’t think for a moment that the government won’t potentially utilize this as a means of simplifying the seizure of property from innocent people with zero due process.

Mac Slavo of SHFTplan.com writes:

“Do you need to withdraw cash to purchase a used car from a private seller? Or perhaps you are pulling out some emergency cash for a loved one.

Either one of these activities are now considered suspicious and if your cash withdrawal amounts to even a few thousand dollars your bank teller is under a legal requirement to alert officials about your suspected criminal activity. And before you argue that you can’t possibly be a suspect because you have done nothing wrong, consider that even being suspected of being a suspect is now enough to land you on a terrorist watchlist in America.”

In 2013, there was a substantial expansion of the terrorist watchlist system. It authorized a secret process that requires neither “concrete facts” nor “irrefutable evidence” to designate an American or foreigner as a terrorist, according to government documents obtained by The Intercept.

So potentially you can receive a visit from the police, be put on a terror watch list, and/or have your assets seized for doing nothing other than simply withdrawing your hard earned cash from the bank.

Let that sink in for a moment.

All of that for trying to withdraw your own money from a bank!

It’s always for “our” safety… always about safety.

Just give up a little bit more freedom and exchange it for the warm fuzzy feeling of safety. Exactly how much more liberty must we give up before we finally achieve the ever elusive maximum security?

It seems everyone is a suspect in police state USA.

[Matt P]

I've been seeing this firsthand for years. I do a lot of contracting work and sometimes people work for me that insist on being paid in cash so I have to go cash my clients' checks. This has become much more difficult the last few years. Some banks refuse or charge such a high cashing fee that it's ridiculous. I've had banks call my clients right there on the spot to make sure it's ok to give them MY money (a written check made out to me is my cash once it's signed), which I find very disrespectful and unprofessional. I especially love when they require TWO forms of state issued ID, as if my state issued drivers license isn't proof enough of who I am, especially when I am standing in a bank being observed by numerous cameras in perfect view (so I have to carry around my passport). All this to make getting cash more difficult and to condition people to stop dealing in cash.
And I'm doing nothing illegal or nefarious and pay my damn taxes like a good little slave! I just don't like being treated like a criminal!
I keep wondering, if this continues, when I will have to move and where to get away from the police state.

Matt

[Hervé]

Well, I guess Matt won't be moving to Louisiana:

Shopping with cash is now illegal in this state (http://thecrux.com/unbelievable-shopping-with-cash-can-now-get-you-arrested-in-this-state/)


http://thecrux.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Garage-Sale-1024x685.jpg

From Joseph Salerno at LewRockwell.com (https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/04/joseph-salerno/forcing-cajuns-to-go-cashless/):
With the passage of House Bill 195 into law, the State of Louisiana has banned the use of cash in all transactions involving second-hand goods (http://govtslaves.info/louisiana-makes-it-illegal-to-use-cash-to-buy-used-goods/). State representative Ricky Hardy, a co-author of the bill, claims that the bill targets criminals who traffic in stolen goods. According to Hardy, “It’s a mechanism to be used so the police department has something to go on and have a lead.”

The bill prohibits cash transactions by “second-hand dealers,” defined to include garage sales, flea markets, resellers of specialty items, and even non-profit resellers like Goodwill. Curiously, it specifically exempts pawnbrokers from the ban. But of course, pawn shops – and not rented stalls at local church flea markets – are notorious as places that criminals frequent to convert stolen goods into quick cash. So what gives?

Are the authors of the bill and those who voted for it ignoramuses – or are they deliberately obscuring the real purpose of the bill? The answer is clear once we examine the other provisions of the bill. The bill goes far beyond banning cash transactions. As lawyer Thad Ackel notes (http://www.sott.net/article/236218-Cash-Transactions-Banned-by-Louisiana-Government-Takes-Private-Property-Without-Due-Process), the bill requires:


… second-hand dealers to turn over a valuable business asset, namely, their business’ proprietary client information. For every transaction, a second-hand dealer must obtain the seller’s personal information such as their name, address, driver’s license number, and the license plate number of the vehicle in which the goods were delivered.

They must also make a detailed description of the item(s) purchased and submit this with the personal identification information of every transaction to the local policing authorities through electronic daily reports.

If a seller cannot or refuses to produce to the second-hand dealer any of the required forms of identification, the second-hand dealer is prohibited from completing the transaction.So the aim of the bill is not to aid law enforcement in apprehending criminals, none of whom would be ever stupid enough to turn over such information. The real intent is to feed government’s insatiable hunger for tax revenues by completely stripping law-abiding citizens of financial privacy in second-hand transactions, every detail of which is fed directly into police files. This troubling development in Louisiana parallels the intensification of the war on cash by the Federal government. Last month, it was reported (http://www.infowars.com/feds-urge-banks-to-call-cops-on-customers-who-withdraw-5000-or-more/) that the U.S. Justice Department ordered bank employees to snitch to the cops on customers who withdrew $5,000 or more. In a speech, assistant attorney general Leslie Caldwell exhorted banks to “alert law enforcement authorities about the problem” so that police can “seize the funds” or at least “initiate an investigation.”

SEE ALSO: Can this happen in your state? This 22-year U.S. Congressman says YES. Here’s why… (https://orders.cloudsna.com/chain?cid=MKT033949&eid=MKT042030&snaid=&step=start)

[Carmody]

Actually, a state law against the sale of second hand goods, via cash.... is not likely to be effective, as it is contrary to federal law. I expect an injunction or challenge/hold on this state law, to be appearing in the next few days. Just a wild guess based on obvious facts tied to extant law.

[Bill Ryan]

.
Back around 15 years ago, I was in Germany, and went to a small bank branch in a small town to change (not withdraw) UK pounds cash into 2,000 euros. That was about the same number of dollars at the time.

The bank manager was summoned, and he asked me what I was doing there. "Im Urlaub", I told him: "On vacation." He was unsmiling, but seemed to accept it, and I was required to show them my passport in order to change the money.

When I landed back in Edinburgh, I was pulled aside by customs and every part of my baggage was meticulously searched. It was clear I'd been targeted and tracked. There was of course nothing there... but I'm sure I was put on some list. :)

[thepainterdoug]

money is no longer real money, and your no longer real money isn't even yours.

[EC1000]

So I'm confused. If I sell some stuff on craigslist and the buyer pays me with a large sum of cash, is it now my civil duty to report them to the authorities? "Um yes sir, that is correct, I sold the man a vintage guitar and he paid me in CASH!!! I just thought you should know." Whats next. being put on the watch list when we deposit large amounts of cash as well. What a bunch of BS. I know its just a move towards a cashless society, but they haven't thought it out very well, now all of the people who buy drugs and child prostitutes from the CIA are going to be hassled when they make these large cash withdrawals required to pay for these services-this could really hurt the CIA's 5 year business plan!!! :-)

[Camilo]

So I'm confused. If I sell some stuff on craigslist and the buyer pays me with a large sum of cash, is it now my civil duty to report them to the authorities? "Um yes sir, that is correct, I sold the man a vintage guitar and he paid me in CASH!!! I just thought you should know." Whats next. being put on the watch list when we deposit large amounts of cash as well. What a bunch of BS. I know its just a move towards a cashless society, but they haven't thought it out very well, now all of the people who buy drugs and child prostitutes from the CIA are going to be hassled when they make these large cash withdrawals required to pay for these services-this could really hurt the CIA's 5 year business plan!!! :-)

No, I don't think that's the case. For what I understand it applies to transactions at the bank, when you withdraw money from your account in the amount of 5K or over. Further more, this measure has been going on for a long time with deposits or withdrawns of 10k or over in cash transactions.

[Erich]

… Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses...

[prc]

Brazil is not the place to hide MPENNERY if you want to flee the police state. We simply copy all the bills from Europe and USA. It´s just a matter of time for this new trend to become reality here. Recently our Central Bank decreased the amount of paper money and coins that is circulating on the economy, leaving the shops without proper exchange to give to the clients.

[Lifebringer]

So I'm confused. If I sell some stuff on craigslist and the buyer pays me with a large sum of cash, is it now my civil duty to report them to the authorities? "Um yes sir, that is correct, I sold the man a vintage guitar and he paid me in CASH!!! I just thought you should know." Whats next. being put on the watch list when we deposit large amounts of cash as well. What a bunch of BS. I know its just a move towards a cashless society, but they haven't thought it out very well, now all of the people who buy drugs and child prostitutes from the CIA are going to be hassled when they make these large cash withdrawals required to pay for these services-this could really hurt the CIA's 5 year business plan!!! :-)

Take it out in increments until all is in your possession, then bury or hide it for when you need it.

[EC1000]

So I'm confused. If I sell some stuff on craigslist and the buyer pays me with a large sum of cash, is it now my civil duty to report them to the authorities? "Um yes sir, that is correct, I sold the man a vintage guitar and he paid me in CASH!!! I just thought you should know." Whats next. being put on the watch list when we deposit large amounts of cash as well. What a bunch of BS. I know its just a move towards a cashless society, but they haven't thought it out very well, now all of the people who buy drugs and child prostitutes from the CIA are going to be hassled when they make these large cash withdrawals required to pay for these services-this could really hurt the CIA's 5 year business plan!!! :-)

No, I don't think that's the case. For what I understand it applies to transactions at the bank, when you withdraw money from your account in the amount of 5K or over. Further more, this measure has been going on for a long time with deposits or withdrawns of 10k or over in cash transactions.

thanks- sorry for my sarcasm :-)

[Lifebringer]

"We must do
what we can,
while we can,
where we can."


KJAvalonian (SOTW)

[Lifebringer]

NWO mark of the beast, is electronic pay cards w/your voluntary signature. Spend cash to keep that freedom open. Reason, people purchase and receive and then cancell payment also. I've seen some very obstinate people in my day, and unscrupulous is a flattery because they are part of the color priviledge. Don't agree with them, they cancell cable, purchases and move after they receive items or use others names and addresses, that know nothing about either. Use your cash assets/solid currency, as you don't have to pay someone a charge for a few clicks on a screen by machine.

Don't cost you nothing to pull it out tour own pocket and you don't get overcharge fees.:clapping:

[Hervé]

The Bankster War on Cash; JPMorganChase Begins to Prohibit the Storage of Cash in Its Safety Deposit Boxes (http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2015/04/the-bankster-war-on-cash-jpmorganchase.html)

By Robert Wenzel, Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Letters are apparently going out to some JPMoragnChase customers announcing that cash will be prohibited from being stored in the bank's safety deposit boxes.

At the Collectors Universe message board, a commenter reports (http://forums.collectors.com/messageview.cfm?catid=42&threadid=941305):

My mother has a SDB at a Chase branch with one of my siblings as co-signers. Last week they got a letter outlining a number of changes to the lease agreement, including this:

"Contents of the box: You agree not to store any cash or coins other than those found to have a collectible value."

Another change is that signatures will no longer be accepted to access the box. The next time they go in they have to bring two forms of ID and they will be issued a four-digit pin number that will be used to access the box then and in the future.Professor Joseph Salerno of the Mises Institute writes (https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/the-totalitarian-war-on-cash/):

As of March, Chase began restricting the use of cash in selected markets, including Greater Cleveland. The new policy restricts borrowers from using cash to make payments on credit cards, mortgages, equity lines, and auto loans. Chase even goes as far as to prohibit the storage of cash in its safe deposit boxes . In a letter to its customers dated April 1, 2015 pertaining to its “Updated Safe Deposit Box Lease Agreement,” one of the highlighted items reads: “You agree not to store any cash or coins other than those found to have a collectible value.” Just last week, Citigroup's top economist, Willem Buiter, wrote a report (http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2015/04/top-bankster-economist-issues-report.html) calling for the abolishment of cash as a sound policy.

Hide your wallets, the banksters are on the move.

-RW (http://www.robertwenzel.com/)

at 1:24 AM (http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2015/04/the-bankster-war-on-cash-jpmorganchase.html)


Most Popular Posts During the Last 7 Days


The Bankster War on Cash; JPMorganChase Begins to Prohibit the Storage of Cash in Its Safety Deposit Boxes (http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2015/04/the-bankster-war-on-cash-jpmorganchase.html)
Cash Banned in Louisiana at Garage Sales, Flea Markets etc. (http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2015/04/cash-banned-in-louisiana-at-garage.html)

[Flash]

How will will thel Clinton and the Bush Families continue to import tons of drugs into America then??? Without cash???

What happened worldwide? Will the banks in the Island where every rich person divert their money be the supplier of non cash money????

Yes, it is going towards cashless society, and everything could be track. Is it the wish for absolute supremacy that dictate to the rich to implement such laws?

The old reporter who asked the first question to Bill Clinton is a very renown reporter, always well documented, who has retired a few years ago. When retiring, she gave an interview telling a bit about Zionism's objectives and a little about government corruption, even if she is herself Jewish.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJibpRgRaUg

[ThePythonicCow]

How will will thel Clinton and the Bush Families continue to import tons of drugs into America then??? Without cash???
Rules are for chumps like us.

Besides, when the level of corruption reaches the billions of dollars worth that the Bush's and Clinton's are involved with, cash becomes inconvenient.

[Flash]

How will will thel Clinton and the Bush Families continue to import tons of drugs into America then??? Without cash???
Rules are for chumps like us.

Besides, when the level of corruption reaches the billions of dollars worth that the Bush's and Clinton's are involved with, cash becomes inconvenient.

Agreed, yet they still have to rely on their distribution system, i.e. the small crook, to do the final step of marketing and selling. If they block their distributon network, they are not better off. Unless they decided to let go of drug trades, which I would be very surprised of, seeing the ways Afghanistan war has been supported and how the opium poppies are growing more than ever for heroin trade (again, the army being used for destroying its own country of origin citizens)

[Camilo]

The Bankster War on Cash; JPMorganChase Begins to Prohibit the Storage of Cash in Its Safety Deposit Boxes (http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2015/04/the-bankster-war-on-cash-jpmorganchase.html)

By Robert Wenzel, Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Letters are apparently going out to some JPMoragnChase customers announcing that cash will be prohibited from being stored in the bank's safety deposit boxes.

At the Collectors Universe message board, a commenter reports (http://forums.collectors.com/messageview.cfm?catid=42&threadid=941305):

My mother has a SDB at a Chase branch with one of my siblings as co-signers. Last week they got a letter outlining a number of changes to the lease agreement, including this:

"Contents of the box: You agree not to store any cash or coins other than those found to have a collectible value."

Another change is that signatures will no longer be accepted to access the box. The next time they go in they have to bring two forms of ID and they will be issued a four-digit pin number that will be used to access the box then and in the future.Professor Joseph Salerno of the Mises Institute writes (https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/the-totalitarian-war-on-cash/):

As of March, Chase began restricting the use of cash in selected markets, including Greater Cleveland. The new policy restricts borrowers from using cash to make payments on credit cards, mortgages, equity lines, and auto loans. Chase even goes as far as to prohibit the storage of cash in its safe deposit boxes . In a letter to its customers dated April 1, 2015 pertaining to its “Updated Safe Deposit Box Lease Agreement,” one of the highlighted items reads: “You agree not to store any cash or coins other than those found to have a collectible value.” Just last week, Citigroup's top economist, Willem Buiter, wrote a report (http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2015/04/top-bankster-economist-issues-report.html) calling for the abolishment of cash as a sound policy.

Hide your wallets, the banksters are on the move.

-RW (http://www.robertwenzel.com/)

at 1:24 AM (http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2015/04/the-bankster-war-on-cash-jpmorganchase.html)


Most Popular Posts During the Last 7 Days


The Bankster War on Cash; JPMorganChase Begins to Prohibit the Storage of Cash in Its Safety Deposit Boxes (http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2015/04/the-bankster-war-on-cash-jpmorganchase.html)
Cash Banned in Louisiana at Garage Sales, Flea Markets etc. (http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2015/04/cash-banned-in-louisiana-at-garage.html)


To me this is an indication that TPTW are going to initiate a shortage of cash to further control the population at large. The only thing left would be that you can't keep cah in your safe at home.

[Hervé]

The Cashless Society Is Going to Backfire for the Establishment (http://www.thedailysheeple.com/the-cashless-society-is-going-to-backfire-for-the-establishment_042015)

Joshua Krause The Daily Sheeple (http://www.thedailysheeple.com/) April 21st, 2015
Reader Views: 2,294


http://www.thedailysheeple.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/basket-of-money.png (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Basket_of_money.jpg)

There is nothing the banks would love more than to ban paper currency, though not for the same reason most gold bugs might like to do the same. If there were no cash, then the banks would have absolute control over our savings, and we would all have to keep our money “in the system.” Governments would probably enjoy this as well. It would make it so much easier for them to track our purchases and profits, and tax them accordingly.

The desires of the banking cartel became perfectly clear two weeks ago when Willem Buiter, the chief economist for Citigroup, advocated banning cash (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-10/citi-economist-says-it-might-be-time-to-abolish-cash) to supposedly save the global economy.

The world’s central banks have a problem.

When economic conditions worsen, they react by reducing interest rates in order to stimulate the economy. But, as has happened across the world in recent years, there comes a point where those central banks run out of room to cut — they can bring interest rates to zero, but reducing them further below that is fraught with problems, the biggest of which is cash in the economy.

In a new piece, Citi’s Willem Buiter looks at this problem, which is known as the effective lower bound (ELB) on nominal interest rates.

Fundamentally, the ELB problem comes down to cash. According to Buiter, the ELB only exists at all due to the existence of cash, which is a bearer instrument that pays zero nominal rates. Why have your money on deposit at a negative rate that reduces your wealth when you can have it in cash and suffer no reduction?

Cash therefore gives people an easy and effective way of avoiding negative nominal rates. So basically what he’s suggesting is that by eliminating cash, it will make it easier for the banks to take your money. Right now it’s difficult for them to enforce a negative interest rate (which would ostensibly fuel the economy by making people spend money instead of saving it) because people will just take the cash out of their accounts. You can’t place a negative interest rate on money that’s hiding under your mattress.


They really just want to make it expensive for you to save money. They want you to spend it all on frivolous crap (to keep the global economic bubble going), which means that at some point it will return to the banking system, where they will be able to charge you even more than they already do, just for the privilege of keeping it there. Rinse and repeat until we’re all debt slaves.



However, these bankers really haven’t thought this through. They probably believe that a cashless society will work, because of success stories like Sweden, where four out of five purchases (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/11/welcome-sweden-electronic-money-not-so-funny) are done electronically. What they’re not taking into account, is that Sweden has a successful economy despite going cashless, not because of it. They have a cohesive society with low crime rates, good schools, and an excellent infrastructure. They would have been successful either way.



But if they try going cashless in some basket case nation, they’re in for a rude awakening. I can already tell you what would happen in America. Unlike Sweden, it’s not going to stifle the black market, which is the biggest reason why governments want to go cashless.



It’s going to strengthen it.



The black market in the United States is a multibillion dollar economy. It’s been estimated that our black market may comprise at least 10 percent of our GDP (http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2014/06/04/should-u-s-measure-the-black-market/). That’s a force to be reckoned with. That’s larger than the economies of most nations and corporations, and it consists of everything from drug cartels to babysitters. Do they really think that this powerful force will stand idly by as their wealth is forced into the light of day by an edict?



Eliminating cash won’t remove the desire to save money, and people who work in the black market already don’t like to deal with banks. This will only serve to push them even further away from the legitimate economy. Instead of cash, they will just find new ways to preserve their wealth.



In the years that followed the crash of 2008, what did fearful Americans buy to preserve their wealth? They bought everything the government doesn’t want us to own. Gold, silver, guns, storable food, cryptocurrencies, etc. These all went up in value. If this comes to pass, members of the black market will just put their money in real world commodities and untraceable currencies, because there will be no other options if they want to stay away from the prying eyes of corporations and governments.



And unlike cash, which will occasionally find its way back into the banking system since people still need to write checks for their gas, electric, insurance, and water bills; many of these resources will never see the light of day again.



They should also consider what will happen if every single transaction causes you to lose money. If just having money means losing money. This will make it profitable for the black market reach into every facet of the economy. Think prohibition, but applied to buying groceries and paying your rent. Everything that can be done informally, will be. This will in time, pave the way for an economy that is separate from the one we currently operate in. It will create a viable alternative to the system we’ve been forced to endure.



Perhaps, this is difficult for us imagine because we’ve never experienced it. But in most cases the black market always finds a way, because the black market goes by another name: the free market. And the free market can’t be stifled in the long run. It will always produce an alternative to any law or regulation.



Money has become intrinsically connected to everything we want, need, and do, so by removing cash and creative negative interest rates, they’re placing a tax on every day life. And if the black market does what the black market does best, it will create an underground alternative to everything we want and need. And I mean everything.



The same situation occurred in the final days of the Soviet Union. Their dysfunctional system produced one of the most virulent and extensive black markets in history, and one could find just about any product or service there. There’s no reason why it can’t happen here. If they succeed in eliminating cash, their system will fade while the black market thrives. They’re too stupid and hubristic to realize that they’re fueling alternatives to their vision of the world, and sealing their own doom.


Delivered by The Daily Sheeple (http://www.TheDailySheeple.com/)
Contributed by Joshua Krause of The Daily Sheeple (http://www.thedailysheeple.com/).
Joshua Krause is a reporter, writer and researcher at The Daily Sheeple (http://thedailysheeple.com/). He was born and raised in the Bay Area and is a freelance writer and author. You can follow Joshua’s reports at Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Daily-Sheeple/114637491995485) or on his personal Twitter (https://twitter.com/vagabondjosh). Joshua’s website is Strange Danger (http://stdanger.blogspot.com) .

[ThePythonicCow]

Agreed, yet they still have to rely on their distribution system, i.e. the small crook, to do the final step of marketing and selling. If they block their distributon network, they are not better off.
Us Texans say "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns."

I foresee a new saying: "If cash is outlawed, only outlaws will have cash."

[ThePythonicCow]

To me this is an indication that TPTW are going to initiate a shortage of cash to further control the population at large. The only thing left would be that you can't keep cah in your safe at home.
Excellent observation.

Though I suspect that most of us (drug dealers, bookies and other criminals excepted) won't have much cash on hand, out of long standing habit, so that likely will not cause them much of a problem with their plans to initiate a cash shortage.

[Hervé]

In agreement with the OP, the thread title was change to "Government/Bankers War on Cash"

[Flash]

Bumping my own post 16 here

The video is a MUST LISTEN. I have been listening to it while trying to solve technical glitches from my pms with Paul (thanks Paul), and I did not know the whole content.

It is EXTRAORDINARY. It even gives the name of the companies created by the CIA in Mexico and the transactions made.

This video is old, but it allows to see the history and ways of doing things, and we can extrapolate easily from there - cocaine / heroin trade - for ISIS being on Mexican/American border. Same old jerks involved, but it tells the hows.

A MUST LISTEN


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJibpRgRaUg

[Hervé]

Banks increasingly refuse cash withdrawals - Switzerland joins the fun (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-25/war-cash-migrates-switzerland)

Tyler Durden
Zerohedge (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-25/war-cash-migrates-switzerland)
Sat, 25 Apr 2015 17:15 UTC



http://www.sott.net/image/s12/242054/large/snb2.jpg (http://www.sott.net/image/s12/242054/full/snb2.jpg)
© Daniel Rohr Swiss National Bank headquarters



The war on cash is proliferating globally. It appears that the private members of the world's banking cartels are increasingly joining the fun, even if it means trampling on the rights of their customers.

Yesterday we came across an article at Zerohedge (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-23/largest-bank-america-joins-war-cash), in which Dr. Salerno of the Mises Institute notes that JP Morgan Chase has apparently joined the "war on cash", by "restricting the use of cash in selected markets, restricting borrowers from making cash payments on credit cards, mortgages, equity lines and auto loans, as well as prohibiting storage of cash in safe deposit boxes".

This reminded us immediately that we have just come across another small article in the local European press (http://www.srf.ch/news/wirtschaft/negativzins-bank-verweigert-pensionskasse-bargeld-auszahlung) (courtesy of Dan Popescu), in which a Swiss pension fund manager discusses his plight with the SNB's bizarre negative interest rate policy. In Switzerland this policy has long ago led to negative deposit rates at the commercial banks as well. The difference to other jurisdictions is however that negative interest rates have become so pronounced, that it is by now worth it to simply withdraw one's cash and put it into an insured vault.

Having realized this, said pension fund manager, after calculating that he would save at least 25,000 CHF per year on every CHF 10 m. deposit by putting the cash into a vault, told his bank that he was about to make a rather big withdrawal very soon. After all, as a pension fund manager he has a fiduciary duty to his clients, and if he can save money based on a technicality, he has to do it.

A legally murky situation - but collectivism wins out

What happened next is truly stunning. Surely everybody is aware that Switzerland regularly makes it to the top three on the list of countries with the highest degree of economic freedom. At the same time, it has a central bank whose board members are wedded to Keynesian nostrums similar to those of other central banks. This is no wonder, as nowadays, economists are trained in an academic environment that is dripping with the most vicious statism imaginable. As a result, withdrawing one's cash is evidently regarded as "interference with the SNB's monetary policy goals". Thus SRF reports:

"Since the national bank has introduced negative interest rates, pension funds in the country are in trouble. Banks are passing the negative rates on to them. This results in the saved pension money shrinking, instead of producing a return. A number of pension funds are therefore thinking about keeping their money in an external vault instead of leaving it in bank accounts.

One fund manager showed that for every CHF 10 m. in pension money, his fund would save CHF 25,000 - in spite of the costs involved in vault rent, cash transportation and other expenses.

However, as our research team has found out, there is one bank that refuses to pay out money in such large amounts. The editorial team has gotten hold of a letter from a large Swiss bank in which it tells its customer, a pension fund:

"We are sorry, that within the time period specified, no solution corresponding to your expectations could be found."

Bank expert Hans Geiger says that this "is most definitely not legal". The pension fund has a sight account, and has the contractual right to dispose of its money on demand. (emphasis added)

Indeed, although we all know that fractionally reserved banks literally don't have the money their customers hold in demand deposits, the contract states clearly that customers may withdraw their funds at any time on demand. The maturity of sight deposits is precisely zero.

So how come the unnamed "large bank" (they should have named it, just to see what happens...) is so bold as to break the law by refusing to pay out funds in a demand deposit? Note here that it is indeed breaking the law, as there is nothing in Swiss legislation that states that banks are allowed to refuse or delay servicing withdrawals from demand deposits upon request.

The answer is that it has probably received a "directive" from the Swiss National Bank. Note here that these directives are not legally binding. SFR further:


"The president of the pension funds association ASIP, Hanspeter Konrad, has been irritated for weeks that pension funds are suffering from negative interest rates. He says: "We simply cannot understand that the banks are butting in here". Konrad suspects that the National Bank is exerting its influence.

Indeed, the SNB confirms that it doesn't like to see the hoarding of cash to circumvent its negative interest rate policy. "The National Bank has therefore recommended to the banks to approach withdrawal demands in a restrictive manner."

Hans Giger, professor eremitus at the University of Zurich, says to this that the question how far the SNB can go is legally complicated. While the SNB is not allowed to influence the contract between a bank and a pension fund, it can however "issue directives to the banks in the collective interest of the Swiss economy". What banks do with the SNB's directives is however up to them. (emphasis added)

In other words, large depositors in Swiss banks have now become victims of collectivism. Collectivism is of course precisely what informs all central planning endeavors. Obviously, property rights count for nothing if the central planners can revoke them at the drop of a hat.

Conclusion

It is undoubtedly a huge red flag when in one of the countries considered to be a member of the "highest economic freedom in the world" club, commercial banks are suddenly refusing their customers access to their cash. This money doesn't belong to the banks, and it doesn't belong to the central bank either.

If this can happen in prosperous Switzerland, based on some nebulous notion of the "collective good", which its unelected central planners can arbitrarily determine and base decisions upon, it can probably happen anywhere. Consider yourself warned. As the modern day fiat money system inevitably cruises toward its final denouement, individual rights will come increasingly under attack as the world's ruling elites and centrally directed banking cartels begin to batten down the hatches.

Better continue stacking, and keep a pile of this within grabbing distance - after all, it can be purchased at a generous discount these days:


http://www.sott.net/image/s12/242055/large/gold_bars.jpg (http://www.sott.net/image/s12/242055/full/gold_bars.jpg)

[Hervé]

The “War on Cash” in 10 Spine-Chilling Quotes (http://wolfstreet.com/2015/04/25/don-quijones-war-on-cash-quotes-to-cashless-society/)

April 25, 2015


by Don Quijones (http://wolfstreet.com/author/don-quijones/), Spain & Mexico, editor at WOLF STREET (http://wolfstreet.com/).

The war on cash is escalating. As Mises’ Jo Salerno reports, the latest combatant to join the fray is JP Morgan Chase, the largest bank in the U.S., which recently enacted a policy restricting the use of cash in selected markets; bans cash payments for credit cards, mortgages, and auto loans; and disallows the storage of “any cash or coins” in safe deposit boxes. In other words, the war has moved on from one of words to actions.

Here are ten quotes that should chill the spine of any individual who cherishes his or her freedom and anonymity:

1. Kenneth Rogoff (from the intro to his paper The Costs and Benefits to Phasing Out Paper Currency):


Despite advances in transactions technologies, paper currency still constitutes a notable percentage of the money supply in most countries… Yet, it has important drawbacks. First, it can help facilitate activity in the underground (tax-evading) and illegal economy. Second, its existence creates the artifact of the zero bound on the nominal interest rate.
In other words, cash (not money) is the source of all evil and must be destroyed because governments can’t trace its every movement, and it represents a limiting factor on central banks’ ability to continue their insane negative-interest-rate experiment.

2. Citigroup’s Chief Economist Willem Buiter responds (http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2015/04/10/2126212/buiter-on-the-death-of-cash/) to the monetary economist Charles Goodhart’s description of abolishing currency as “shockingly illiberal.”


(T)his cost has to be seen against the cost that the anonymity of currency presents to society. Even though hard evidence is hard to come by, it is very likely that the underground economy and the criminal community are among the heaviest users of currency.
This, I believe, is the hidden intent behind all the excited talk about banning cash: to do away with the personal anonymity it offers.

3. France’s finance minister Michel Sapin (https://mises.org/blog/fighting-war-terror-banning-cash) adds a dose of scare-mongering, which can do wonders. In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo murders, he put much of the blame for the attacks on the assailants’ ability to buy dangerous things with cash. Shortly thereafter he announced a raft of capital controls that included a €1,000 cap on cash payments, down from €3,000. Such radical counter measures were necessary, he said, to “fight against the use of cash and anonymity in the French economy.”

4. Guillermo de la Dehesa, a Spanish economist, former senior civil servant and current international advisor to Banco Santander and… (cue drum roll) Goldman Sachs, already demonized cash (as opposed to digitalized bank credit) as a source of all crime and evil back in 2007, when he wrote the following in an El Pais (http://elpais.com/diario/2007/10/13/economia/1192226413_850215.html) article titled “The Great Advantage of a Cashless World”:


Without cash, we would live in a much safer, less violent world with enhanced social cohesion, since the major incentive fuelling all illegal activity … would disappear.”
Dehesa also lamented that political authorities in all countries were incapable of taking this “transcendental step” to build a “safer and fairer world, in which there will be a reduced need for public and private policing and fewer wars, terrorist attacks, and burglaries, and drugs could only be bought legally.” So he ludicrously elevated cash (rather than money) as a major cause of war and a laundry list of other evils. They’d be stamped out by electronic payments where every single movement will be tracked and recorded for posterity.

5. Economist and former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, among the growing ranks of policymakers, business leaders, academics, and bankers picking up the torch of Dehesa’s dystopian dream, is barely able to conceal his glee as he tells CBS news (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-cash-is-losing-its-currency-20-04-2012/):

There will be a time – I don’t know when, I can’t give you a date – when physical money is just going to cease to exist. 6. David Wolman, author of the Death of Money, told CBS (http://wolfstreet.com/2015/04/25/don-quijones-war-on-cash-quotes-to-cashless-society/Everyone%20thinks%20cash%20is%20so%20simple%20and%20so%20easy%20and%20so%20fast%20and%20so%20secure) just why cash is so impractical (not to mention unhygienic, or as he puts it “pretty gross”):


Everyone thinks cash is so simple and so easy and so fast and so secure. It’s NONE of those things. It’s really expensive to move it, store it, secure it, inspect it, shred it, redesign it, re-supply it, and round and round we go! 7. Founder of mobile payments provider Square, Jack Dorsey (http://fortune.com/2012/07/09/the-death-of-cash/) seems to understand that to kill cash for good the authorities must go beyond just vilifying it; they must romanticize the alternatives. Here’s his take on mobile money:


I think there is a general desire in American culture right now to find something that is more [I]crafted, more personal.
As anyone who’s ever received money as a gift will tell you, there’s nothing more impersonal (and, of course, more untraceable and anonymous) than cash. Mobile payments will fix that shortcoming.

8. Chris Skinner, author of The Future of Banking and Digital Bank, drives home the point that digital money doesn’t just offer a more personal touch; it also offers a far more secure payment system, especially with the advent of biometric authentication systems.


Imagine that your payment mechanism is built into a watch that your bank gave you. The watch includes an RFID or NFC capability, biometric recognition and is supported by existing infrastructures at the merchant front-end and money transmissions process back-end. The retail consumer can therefore go into any store, wave their watch at the contactless terminal, press their finger to the pay point and they have purchased the goods. No card or cash involved.

That is the vision of the future of retail payments and we are almost there today. We already have contactless payment terminals, fingerprint recognition payments, micro and mobile payments. The only logical step is to introduce non-card based (i.e. biometric-based) payment systems. As the saying goes: you can create a new password many times (for example, if your accounts get hacked), but you can create your biometrics only once. If they’re compromised, they remain compromised. So a payment system based on them would be really cool.

9. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in its 2015 annual letter, (http://www.gatesnotes.com/2015-annual-letter?page=3) adds a new twist. The technologies are all in place; it’s just a question of getting us to use them so we can all benefit from a crimeless, privacy-free world. What better place to conduct a massive social experiment than sub-Saharan Africa, where NGOs and GOs (Government Organizations) are working hand-in-hand with banks and telecom companies to replace cash with mobile money alternatives? So the annual letter explains:


(B)ecause there is strong demand for banking among the poor, and because the poor can in fact be a profitable customer base, entrepreneurs in developing countries are doing exciting work – some of which will “trickle up” to developed countries over time. What the Foundation doesn’t mention is that it is heavily invested in many of Africa’s mobile-money initiatives and in 2010 teamed up with the World Bank to “improve financial data collection” among Africa’s poor. One also wonders whether Microsoft might one day benefit from the Foundation’s front-line role in mobile money.

10. Buiter’s employer Citi, a big player in the African arena, recently launched a partnership with USAID aimed at accelerating mobile money adoption in developing countries. Here’s a nugget from their joint press release (http://www.usaid.gov/news-information/press-releases/us-agency-international-development-citi-accelerate-mobile-money):


[E]xpanding the adoption of mobile financial solutions is a critical economic development strategy with the potential to drive growth and increase financial access and security for the developing world’s poor population. The effort seeks to strengthen alternatives to a cash-based system that is inefficient, costly, and prone to corruption.
As a result of technological advances and generational priorities, cash’s days may well be numbered. But there is a whole world of difference between a natural death and euthanasia. It is now clear that an extremely powerful, albeit loose, alliance of governments, banks, central banks, start-ups, large corporations, and NGOs are determined to pull the plug on cash — not for our benefit, but for theirs.

As I warned in We Are Sleepwalking Towards a Cashless Society (http://ragingbull****.com/2014/01/28/we-are-sleepwalking-towards-a-cashless-society/), we (or at least the vast majority of people in the vast majority of countries) are willing to entrust government and financial institutions – organizations that have already betrayed just about every possible notion of trust – with complete control over our every single daily transaction. And all for the sake of a few minor gains in convenience. The price we pay will be what remains of our individual freedom and privacy. By Don Quijones, Raging Bull-**** (http://ragingbull****.com/).

Wolf here: Governments and corporations have one thing in common: they want to know everything. Data is power. And money. Technologies for collecting, mining, and using data are now so cheap that totally impoverished Somaliland has turned into the model of just this sort of cashless society. It sure is convenient. But…. My report from nearly two years ago: Perfecting The Surveillance Society – One Payment At A Time (http://wolfstreet.com/2013/06/25/perfecting-the-surveillance-society-one-payment-at-a-time/)

[Camilo]

The “War on Cash” in 10 Spine-Chilling Quotes (http://wolfstreet.com/2015/04/25/don-quijones-war-on-cash-quotes-to-cashless-society/)

April 25, 2015


by Don Quijones (http://wolfstreet.com/author/don-quijones/), Spain & Mexico, editor at WOLF STREET (http://wolfstreet.com/).

The war on cash is escalating. As Mises’ Jo Salerno reports, the latest combatant to join the fray is JP Morgan Chase, the largest bank in the U.S., which recently enacted a policy restricting the use of cash in selected markets; bans cash payments for credit cards, mortgages, and auto loans; and disallows the storage of “any cash or coins” in safe deposit boxes. In other words, the war has moved on from one of words to actions........

Total control is what they are after!

[cursichella1]

Well, I guess Matt won't be moving to Louisiana:

Shopping with cash is now illegal in this state (http://thecrux.com/unbelievable-shopping-with-cash-can-now-get-you-arrested-in-this-state/)

From Joseph Salerno at LewRockwell.com (https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/04/joseph-salerno/forcing-cajuns-to-go-cashless/):
With the passage of House Bill 195 into law, the State of Louisiana has banned the use of cash in all transactions involving second-hand goods (http://govtslaves.info/louisiana-makes-it-illegal-to-use-cash-to-buy-used-goods/). State representative Ricky Hardy, a co-author of the bill, claims that the bill targets criminals who traffic in stolen goods. According to Hardy, “It’s a mechanism to be used so the police department has something to go on and have a lead.”

The bill prohibits cash transactions by “second-hand dealers,” defined to include garage sales, flea markets, resellers of specialty items, and even non-profit resellers like Goodwill. Curiously, it specifically exempts pawnbrokers from the ban. But of course, pawn shops – and not rented stalls at local church flea markets – are notorious as places that criminals frequent to convert stolen goods ...

I'd meant to look into this sooner than today but had forgotten about it until now.

According to snopes.com, the intention of the law was discourage metal thieves (especially copper). The Law was rewritten to reflect changes (in 2012) that were very specific about that, and excludes garage sales and private sellers of all but a very specific range of goods.

Secondhand dealer defined - Louisiana Revised statute (http://www.lawserver.com/law/state/louisiana/la-laws/louisiana_revised_statutes_37-1861)

Louisiana cash law on snopes.com (http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/cashillegal.asp)

Btw I do agree with most everything on this thread, and a move towards a cashless society is happening. Inaccuracies have a tendency to discredit an entire viewpoint, though, so it's important that we check out the sources of our sources-sources as even the usually trustworthy ones make mistakes.